Dust, rather than Corellian light freighters, are the objects in question: the hope is to use tractor beam tech to collect atmospheric particles or grab dust from a planet’s surface without resorting to using a drill, as the Mars rovers have. And indeed, one of the three methods—optical tweezers—has been used by biologists for decades to hold microscopic particles, including viruses and bacteria, in place for experiments.

The challenge will be developing techniques that will work in all the different environments that an exploratory craft might explore. Optical tweezers won’t work in the vacuum of space, for example, but could be useful on a planet with an atmosphere. The other techniques, which use solenoid beams and Bessel beams, could work at a variety of distances and perhaps without an atmosphere—the NASA team will spend the next decade or so exploring how they might be developed and incorporated.

It’s misleading to say “without resorting to using a drill, as the Mars rovers have”. Some readers will take that to mean that Spirit and Opportunity have drills, because the past tense and the definite article imply that (although Opportunity is still present-tense). Curiosity, which is currently in Florida being prepared for launch, will be the first to use a drill, if all goes well.